Bethlehem Steel

So after I am oriented at the Bethlehem Visitors Center, where do I go to learn the history of Bethlehem Steel? Apparently not to the long-anticipated National Museum of Industrial History, according to the exhibits detailed on its website. And even if the museum decides to do more on Bethlehem Steel, how long will be until it is open? It would seem that the visitors center would be an ideal place to explain what is all around it. I have taught the history of Bethlehem Steel for many years; it is a story that deserves telling.

Musikfest founder Jeff Parks has a confession: He doesn't like crowds. But Parks, who has helped draw millions of people to Bethlehem, wore a big smile last week as he weaved his way through crowds at the annual free music festival. Making his way to a ticket tent at Festplatz, Parks leaned in to chat with volunteers, their jovial banter rising above a band playing "Walk Like an Egyptian. " "I don't want to forget," Parks said, snapping several photos of the group. This year's Musikfest is a victory tour of sorts for Parks, who is stepping down as the head of the festival he dreamed up 30 years ago. He will be handing the reins to new ArtsQuest President and CEO Kassie Hilgert at the end of the year, making this his last Musikfest at the helm.

I agree with Bethlehem City Councilwoman Karen Dolan that the historical property owned by the Allentown Catholic Diocese on Spring Street in Bethlehem should be preserved for the history of Bethlehem Steel. I belong to the Steelworkers Archives group and our goal is to preserve the history of Bethlehem Steel. Most of us worked there or had relatives work there, including mine from Czechoslovakia. My grandfather told me as a child that a woman would never work there, but we proved him wrong.

The wine makers behind an award-winning Slate Belt vineyard are looking to open a craft distillery in south Bethlehem, among the first proposed for the Lehigh Valley. The owners of Franklin Hill Vineyards are seeking a limited-distillery license, which would allow them to make spirits on the South Side, offer tastings and sell the spirits directly to customers. The distillery would be housed in an old Prohibition-era bank across the street from the South Side campus of Northampton Community College and about two blocks from the SteelStacks entertainment complex.

I appreciate all that ArtsQuest has brought to our city, but I have been continually disappointed at the almost total lack of historic interpretation at SteelStacks. Now it seems the new visitors center, located in the historic stock house — the oldest Bethlehem Steel building still standing — will be yet another missed opportunity. Historic interpretation, done right, only adds to the richness of a visitor's experience. It's no more highfalutin than the arts and entertainment that bring people to SteelStacks in the first place.

The City of Bethlehem figures that if was OK for moving carloads of ore, Bethlehem Steel's "Hoover-Mason Trestle" could also be used to shuttle people back and forth from the Sands Casino to SteelStacks. ... The Justice Department has approved a deal allowing Verizon to purchase airwaves from cable companies. ... On the labor front, Northampton County Council is scheduled to vote today on a contract for Gracedale workers that would save an estimated $2 million. ... Meanwhile, at Walmart, price pressure kept second quarter earnings below estimates , sending the stock down.

Visit the SteelsStacks entertainment and cultural campus in South Bethlehem and you'll immediately be drawn in by the reflection of five towering Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces on the modern windows of the new ArtsQuest building, a reflection of the city's past upon its future. You can learn all about that past - from farming roots to bustling industry - and how it evolved into today's revitalization during the new Bethlehem Steel Walking Tours, presented by Historic Bethehem Partnership.

"There's no more steel left in Bethlehem," sings Brittany Holljes of Delta Rae on the band's new song, "Bethlehem Steel. " The Southern rock band from Durham, N.C., joins a list of artists including Grammy Award-winning country artist Nanci Griffith, country artists Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan, and rock band Grant Lee Buffalo in writing songs titled "Bethlehem Steel. " Having played in the Lehigh Valley several times, Delta Rae drew inspiration from Bethlehem Steel's mills and the band members' family history with the company.

The time-worn stone walls where Bethlehem Steel's predecessor first started steelmaking could become a public park. The Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority on Thursday authorized $211,400 to study how the remnants on the 0.75-acre tract known as "the ruins" could be used, what work needs to be done to stabilize them and how much that would cost. Possibilities range from places to sit and relax to a small, outdoor theater. "We just don't know at this point. That's what the study is for," said Tony Hanna, the authority's director.

An investment group has purchased an 88-acre tract of the former Bethlehem Steel plant for $3.6 million with plans to build warehouses on the property. The land, a remote tract that had been part of Steel's coke works slag pile, is the last to be sold off by ArcelorMittal, which acquired Steel's assets in 2003 under the name Mittal Steel. The investment group is led by John Tallarico of Bethlehem and Scott Homel of Philadelphia. Tallarico said the property likely would support four 400,000-square-foot warehouses, small versions of the big-box warehouses being built in the adjacent Majestic Bethlehem and Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII business parks.

The crowd of onlookers toted their traditional Musikfest mugs. Outside the windows of the ArtsQuest Center in south Bethlehem, the sky was a gray soup that drizzled into puddles around the tables and stage - also a tradition. But this time, when Musikfest's founder kicked off this year's 10-day festival with his usual greeting of "Happy Musikfest!" it wasn't the same. "It's probably the last time I'll say that to a crowd," Parks said moments after an opening ceremony that included Pennsylvania first lady Susan Corbett.

Photographs of Bethlehem Steel Corporation taken by long-time industrial photographer Peter Treiber of Bethlehem have been accepted into the Library of Congress' permanent collection. Treiber began photographing plants, mines and shipyards of the now defunct steel giant as an employee of Bethlehem Steel's photographic services division in 1977. In 1982, he founded Peter Treiber Photography, handling the highest-end marketing communications photography for the company until its sale in 2003.

Runners taking part in the 2014 Runner's World Half Marathon on Oct. 19 will feel something they hadn't felt in the previous two years of the Rodale publication's signature race: speed. During a media conference on Tuesday at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, race organizers announced a change to the course that eliminates two of the big hills while adding a much smaller one. "There are a lot more stretches of long straightaways that will make it even faster," said Bart Yasso, the chief running officer for Runner's World.

The state attorney general's office has concluded its investigation into the finances of the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem and construction on the long-overdue project could begin this fall, according to museum interim CEO L. Charles Marcon. Marcon said Friday it could take up to two weeks for Attorney General Kathleen Kane's office to issue its recommendations, and while its findings likely will not seek to close the museum or turn its operation over to another organization, the museum board will not escape unscathed.

Bethlehem is continuing to tweak the city's code regarding sprinkler systems in the sprawling warehouses going up at the former Bethlehem Steel plant site. During Tuesday night's meeting, City Council approved an amendment to the International Building Code ordinance, specifying that approved audible devices be connected to every automatic sprinkler system. The alarm devices will be activated by water flow equivalent to the flow of a single sprinkler of the smallest size installed in the system, and will be installed on the exterior of the building in an approved location.

LOOKING FOR Plant stand: Barbara of Allentown, is looking for a wicker or rattan rectangle plant stand. Organic fruits and vegetables: Sandy of Bethlehem is looking for a place that sells organic or chemically untreated/unsprayed fruits and vegetables. Dieruff High School vinyl record: Joshua is looking for the vinyl record of Dieruff High School's choir "Good Ol' Mountain Dew. " His father sang on this. Metal TV tables: Helen of Bethlehem is looking for metal TV tables.

When the Philadelphia Union takes to the PPL Park on Saturday for the Major League Soccer opening game with Sporting Kansas City, the team's new uniforms will be very familiar to soccer enthusiasts in the Lehigh Valley. The new "third jerseys" are black with white piping and pay homage to the highly successful Bethlehem Steel F.C. teams that won five U.S. Open Cups (1915, 1916, 1918, 1919 and 1926, and team leader Jack McInerney was one of the players sporting the new jersey, complete with the old Steel team's trademark "B" in the lower left front of the jersey and the back collar of the jersey, along with 1911-1930, the years the team was in its first go-around.

After working at Bethlehem Steel for more than 40 years, I saw a lot that happened there to compare it to what is happening today in the federal government. With obvious financial disaster on the horizon, Bethlehem Steel made the decision that, to save our steel industry, we needed to cut costs with job eliminations. So to protect excessive management overhead, the decision was made to terminate janitors and tradespeople and to never address redundancy at all levels, in both the plants and offices.

Small cities like Easton would be able to compete for a powerful, new tax incentive program that Bethlehem landed last year to jumpstart redevelopment at the former Bethlehem Steel plant and other parts of the city, under a bill state Rep. Robert Freeman proposed. Under the bill, those able to compete for the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone would only have a population of 20,000 as opposed to 30,000. Easton fell 3,200 people short of meeting the threshold to compete for the first waive of CRIZ designation that went to Bethlehem and Lancaster in December.

In an interview with Lehigh Valley Music before her June 20 concert at Musikfest Café, 2000s hit singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton spoke a lot about an album she was working on and was expecting to release, but said it was being postponed for a reason she couldn't disclose. We now know the album wasn't the only thing Carlton was expecting. And she made the announcement using Bethlehem's SteelStacks as the backdrop. "I can now reveal the reason as to why [the new album] Liberman will not be released until next summer," Carlton says on her Facebook page.